In the brooding eyes watching my every move.
In the coiled tension in his body.
And heaven help me but I’m…drawn to it.
“Good,” he growls almost to himself. His voice holds a rusty, disused quality that sends shivers dancing over my body. “Good.”
He doesn’t say anything else for ages as his hands glide up and down my outer thighs. This isn’t right. I should tell him to take his hands off me.
But the words stick in my throat. The caged animal quality of the man before me holds me in thrall.
But other parts of our conversation unspool in my head. And I frown. “Did you…did you say you’d been watching our house?”
“Yes,” he responds without remorse.
My next breath gushes out. “And me? You’ve been watchingme?”
A hint of color washes the tops of his cheekbones, but again, his answer is unrepentant. “For several weeks now, yes.”
“That’s sick.”
His teeth bare in a near-feral smile but instead of fear, another sensation shoots downward and heats up my pelvis, taking me by surprise.
“That’s not the worst name I’ve been called. I’m something of a monster, I’m told.”
“Mr. Prince—” I pause when his hands spasm painfully on my hips. “You can’t keep me here.”
His nostrils flare. His eyes drop to the snug stretch of material between my thighs, and I feel a hot throbbing start deep inside.
What the hell is happening to me?
I’ve only experienced that sensation on a smaller scale while reading one of my romance books, but this feels…more. Bigger. Dangerous.
His touch eases, drifts upward beneath my hoodie to the top of my leggings. That moan he almost let free before—the sound that tightens my nipples and makes them chafe inside my bra—gets loose this time.
Then his index finger creeps above the waistline and whispers over my skin.
When I shiver again, his eyes drift shut, and he sucks in a breath. “Jesus. You’re so fucking soft.” He curls a finger under my chin and raises my gaze to his. “You get that I don’t have a choice, don’t you, princess? I have to keep you here.”
“No. Y-you can’t.”
His jaw tightens and unholy light flares in his eyes as he surges upright to tower over me. “The fuck I can’t.” He stops, takes a deep breath like he’s trying to wrestle back his control. “I don’t want to have to force you. I’d like you to stay…of your own free will…until things are resolved.”
“What if they never do? What if my father goes on the run indefinitely?”
The fury builds higher in his eyes. “As much as I want to say that no father should ever abandon a child, never mind one as beautiful as you, I can’t rule that out.”
“So you intend to keep me here indefinitely too?”
That light blazes higher. His gaze drops to my lips, and he licks his own in blatant hunger.
When he drags his gaze up to meet my eyes, I shiver at his expression even while liquid pours between my thighs. He wants me.
Maybe a little too much.
I should run. But again, I…don’t want to.
“I trust my men. Well…most of them anyway. Your father will be found. Until then…” His thumb hovers over my mouth for a moment before it eases over my lower lip. He groans thickly. “Christ. So fucking soft.”